The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever #1-3

by Stephen R. Donaldson

The acclaimed fantasy epic, together in one volume.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adventure

1160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Stephen Reeder Donaldson is an American fantasy, science fiction, and mystery novelist; in the United Kingdom he is usually called "Stephen Donaldson" (without the "R"). He has also written non-fiction under the pen name Reed Stephens.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION:

Stephen R. Donaldson was born May 13, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, James, was a medical missionary and his mother, Ruth, a prosthetist (a person skilled in making or fitting prosthetic devices). Donaldson spent the years between the ages of 3 and 16 living in India, where his father was working as an orthopaedic surgeon. Donaldson earned his bachelor's degree from The College of Wooster and master's degree from Kent State University.

INSPIRATIONS:

Donaldson's work is heavily influenced by other fantasy authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Roger Zelazny, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, and William Faulkner. The writers he most admires are Patricia A. McKillip, Steven Erikson, and Tim Powers.

It is believed that a speech his father made on leprosy (whilst working with lepers in India) led to Donaldson's creation of Thomas Covenant, the anti-hero of his most famous work (Thomas Covenant). The first book in that series, Lord Foul's Bane, received 47 rejections before a publisher agreed to publish it.

PROMINENT WORK:
Stephen Donaldson came to prominence in 1977 with the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, which is centred around a leper shunned by society and his trials and tribulations as his destiny unfolds. These books established Donaldson as one of the most important figures in modern fantasy fiction.

PERSONAL LIFE:
He currently resides in New Mexico.

THE GRADUAL INTERVIEW

Reviews

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 1 out of 5]

SAVE YOURSELF!

Run...run fast and run far don't get caught in this book! I had to finish the first trilogy (for some reason) once I started, and I was miserable! I picked up the first book in the second trilogy and it was again "Oh woe is me. My life is awful, I dare not believe anything good. I will make everyone around me miserable. I will bemoan my fate constantly no matter what...." I threw it away. A friend recommended another completely different series of books by Mr. Donaldson and said "oh no it's not like that." I tried it. A female protagonist starts the first book with "Oh woe is me. I'm so miserable. Life is awful. I will spread my misery..." I flung it from me and now avoid this writer like the plague.

Thomas Covenant is the world's most miserable, gloomy, wretched, irritating, hateful, abhorrent, despicable, contemptible, disheartening, forlorn, self pitying excuse for a (make believe) human being it's ever been my misfortune to read about. When he ends up raping the one woman willing to help him so as to prove none of this is real I was pretty much done with him. I read this trilogy with a group of friends so finished them. I'm more careful about what I commit to in group reads now.

Do you get the idea? I HATE these books. if you don't, well good for you. But you need a good, really good attitude to read this tomb errr, I mean tome, consisting of Thomas Covenant's self centered misery.

Maybe you could consider a therapist?????

I reviewed this a while back, but I want to update it. I want to include a quote from Dorothy Parker I've used before:

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is somewhat infamous: it's widely regarded as brilliant (which it is), it's widely considered depressing (which it can be), the hero is often unappealing (which is the point), and many find the trilogy at least 25% too long (which is true). Plus, the follow-on trilogy tells almost the same story with almost the same point to it.

So, what's the fuss about?

Covenant isn't "Tolkien with the serial numbers filed off." That it holds together with a complete fantasy story in a clear, magical fantasy world and you never once want to compare it to Middle Earth is a good enough start to recommend reading it. Covenant is a fantasy The Stranger, taking a disaffected character who denies all responsibility in his life and feels completely disconnected from the world around him and giving him the power of life and death.

The character Thomas Covenant is definitely unappealing. I put the book down and had to restart it 3 times after a scene in the first book where he--refusing to believe that the woman he was with was anything other than a dream--committed a rape. The morality of how you treat not-real people is a regular theme of Donaldson's and this is his first and harshest demonstration of the subject. It's not easy to read and it's not easy to go on with a protagonist like that.

Watching him slowly learn guilt, remorse, and repentence takes the next two-and-a-half books. As many people comment, that portion of the story is a downer.

Alongside the moral tale we have the fantasy epic: a modern American man returning to a fantasy world (The Land) several times seeing the consequences of his involvement in their epic battle against their own satan-figure: Lord Foul, who wants to break the Arch of the World and release himself into our universes.

Everyone in The Land believes that Covenant is the "White Gold Wielder" who carries power strong enough to break the arch or to stop Foul. This sets up the fantasy/action story, where the people of The Land try to convince Covenant to learn to use his powers and to use them for the greater good and Foul tries to get the power.

Since Covenant only visits The Land when he's suffered a head injury or some other strange type of sleep, he believes The Land is a fantasy of his own imagination.

The people in The Land don't understand why he doesn't believe in them, but they do see how broken he himself is and realize that he won't be able to help them unless he heals from his personal traumas and builds some positive self-concept.

It's a strange twist on the "apprentice who just needs confidence" trope and his mistakes during the early period are all the more appalling because he doesn't feel guilty.

Throughout the book, there is not one scene in The Land that doesn't include Covenant. At the end, we are left with no proof one way or another that The Land is a real alternate world where Covenant travelled. Perhaps his Unbelief at the beginning was correct. The existential element of the story asks why we care which is real; he does what he does and the morality comes from his making the choices.

That's heady stuff for a lightning-bolt-slinging fantasy series and it's not for everyone. It isn't modern "dark fantasy" with supposed anti-heroes who are just ashamed of being good at heart, it's real fantasy where the character development is on as epic a scale as the good-vs-evil plot.

This isn't bus reading and no book is right for everyone, but it's an audacious and brilliant series that flexes fantasy's power to drive character. It's also a fun read with the single scariest magical nasties in the genre (the Reavers).

The second series? It's different on the moral tale while following the same general plot arc, showing how the character involved changes the story. Not worth reading for everyone, but worth a shot if you like the first or if you are interested in the structure of fiction.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this years ago, but I found an old note to self. All you really need to know about this series is that in the 13-page first chapter of the first book, Donaldson uses these words: spavined, desuetude, turgid, condign, gratuitous, dyspeptic, melanoma, immedicable, improvident, lambent, immanence, celerity, preterite, abnegation, carious, and exudation. Now I have a 99th-percentile vocabulary, and it includes a lot of those words, but I know that most readers don't and I am sure that Donaldson was aware of that.

Later on, Donaldson chucks in words that aren't even in my two-volume Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Telic, cymar, jerrids, ...

In chapter four, I laughed out loud when he wrote, "A grimace like a clench of intransigence knotted her mien." That's just silly. I am convinced that Donaldson wrote at least the first book on a drunken bet. Stir in the repulsive Eeyore of a hero and it's even more likely.

If you haven't read this steaming pile of excrement, don't get sucked into wasting your time with it. Go get some Guy Gavriel Kay or Lois McMaster Bujold and read some GOOD fantasy.

[Szplug · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILAGE UP THE YING-YANG.

It's unfortunate that Donaldson opted to conclude the First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant as he did—for it reduced the showdown between the titular protagonist and Lord Foul the Despiser, which should have been epic, to one bordering upon the ridiculous. Indeed, I would have to look to David Eddings' reductio ad absurdum—in which the evil god Torak is defeated, more or less, by (Bel)Garion taunting him with the fact that Ye'll never be loved, gasbag! Nyaahh!—to find a greater disappointment in the endgame of a multi-volume work of fantasy. The spectral presence of personal favorites, like Foamfollower and Mhoram, went a ways towards alleviating my disappointment; but it was only modulated—a disappointment it remained. Fortunately, in the Second Chronicles, to which the character of Linden Avery was enjoined with TC, Donaldson's climax got everything right; and so, considering the pair of trilogies as one cohesive unit, it's the third best such series that I have ever read. Split them in twain? The second, though stronger, cannot match the pure wonder and introductory thrill that was to be found in the opener. Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, and The Power That Preserves rocked my youthful world and were powerful evidence that Tolkien did not, in fact, have the final word to say in the field of heroic fantasy.

Perhaps anti-heroic applies more aptly here—for Thomas Covenant is one peculiar choice for the redeemer of an idealistic world from the nihilistic designs of hatred incarnate. In the real world, Covenant was an author with a happy marriage and a newborn child who was diagnosed with leprosy, resulting in the amputation of two of the fingers on his right hand, and the cleaving of his family life as wife absconded with child out of fear of contagion. Embittered, reclusive, Covenant learns a series of mantras and rituals that will allow him to survive his disease—and also prove pretty darn handy when, upon suffering a series of accidents, he is summoned to a mysterious earthen realm known as The Land, an idealized version of our Earth, wherein wood and stone are vessels of an innate Earthpower that can be accessed by humans with the requisite skills. Covenant discovers that therein he is regarded as the reincarnation of Berek Halfhand, first of the High Lords who ordered the affairs of humans within the Land in harmony to the Earthpower of living Nature, defeated the insidious destructive influence of Lord Foul, and received the friendship/allegiance of the stone-skilled, expert-sailor Giants, the Haruchai, who, in the Bloodguard, form a personal, death-defying corps of protectors for the High Lords, and the Ranyhyn, great horses of the plains. Alas, Lord Foul is a timeless spirit, one who reflects the collective self-hatred and -loathing that exists, in some measure, within every man, and is thus impervious to actual death. After unleashing despair among the High Lords, Lord Foul convinced High Lord Kevin to invoke the Ritual of Desecration which, as apocalyptic rites undertaken in desperation are wont to do, fractured the Land but good. Lore, lives, and love was lost—and now, with the diminished remnant of the High Lords tentatively ruling from their Keep in Revelstoke, it appears that Lord Foul, ensconced within his Creche of a lair, is once again making a play to enact the utter destruction of the Land and engender his escape from imprisonment within the Arch of Time.

Sound familiar? There are some fairly standard fantasy tropes at play within The Chronicles: what makes it work so well are Donaldson's fertile imagination; his blending of European mythology with that of the Orient; his rich vocabulary and confident writing style married to his dark, bleak themes; and, most of all, his creation of Covenant, a thoroughly unique and unlikeable figure who is thrust into a position of power and responsibility that he neither desires nor believes in. Indeed, refusing to accept the regeneration of his nerves when he awakens in the Land, his first act, one of violent, lustful negation, is the rape of Lena, a young Stonedowner girl. From this abhorrent, impulsive response is set in chain a cataclysmic series of events and currents that will play out across the trilogy: notwithstanding the guilt that Covenant bears for this gentle, damaged woman from that point after, if affects his standing as the reincarnation. With his wedding ring revealed as a puissant artifact of White Gold, the source of the Wild Magic that not even Lord Foul can defy, Covenant must make his way to Revelstoke, announce his existence to the High Lords, and undertake to defeat a dark enemy who stands revealed, more and more, as potentially an avatar of the part of Covenant that loathes all that his diseased self has become: a leper, an outcast, unclean, a man who drove the woman who loved him to flee in horror from his disfigured form. Guilt is the primary fuel for this trilogy's engine, and not just as engendered and driving within Covenant himself. It spreads from his malformed extremity like the streams of the Wild Fire he allegedly controls—and in the spectacular Illearth War, the second and strongest of the books, it is revealed that the dread tendrils of corruption may reach even unto such stalwarts as the Giants and the Bloodguard. Things will get messy and nasty ere the great war brewing has been settled by the expulsion of Foul's armies from the stricken realms of the Land.

Fortunately for Covenant, at heart he is not a bad man. He pays for his violation, and pays dearly. He also befriends the Giant Saltheart Foamfollower, easily the best character in the trilogy, as well as (High) Lord Mhoram, a lore-rich member of the Revelstoke rulers who has the most understanding of this unusual, six-fingered individual who frequently raves and rages and treats those who strive to assist him with a ragged refusal to believe. And while, in lesser hands, Covenant's distancing from the Land could become a tiresome and overplayed trope, Donaldson incorporates it adeptly within Covenant's diseased life and loss back on Earth, together with his remorse for assaulting Lena and the mounting toll of lives claimed in service to what he supposedly represents and refuses to accept. And then there's Lord Foul, who, right up until that regrettable conclusion, is a wickedly rendered figure, oozing contempt, speaking pure venom, lashing the beings he hates beyond measure with eyes of coruscating despite. Foul is assisted by the Ravers—turiya Herem, moksha Jehannum, samadhi Sheol—a trio of brotherly spirits of a similar bent to their master, seemingly born with an animosity to the living trees of the land, and, through their capacity for possessing fleshly beings, capable of wreaking subtle and long-undetected harm as the Despiser maneuvers Covenant towards that final confrontation. Together with wholly unique creations like the Ur-viles, Demondim, and Waynhim, Donaldson imagined a fantastically inveigling supporting crew for the three books, ones that span a vast period of time within the Land during the interludes when Covenant (at the end of each volume) has found himself returned to his leprous self in our reality. Furthermore, that the entirety of the Land is not, in fact, a richly detailed, heatedly psychological instantiation of the currents that fuel his dreams is something that is never quite settled to the reader's satisfaction. But what matter that kind of truth? Whether figment of the imagination, or Platonically idealized realm of higher earthen existence, the Chronicles, as they unfold across that Land, are fast-moving, fully-fleshed and -formed, and magical, mystical, and marvelous enough to stretch the boundaries of the fantasy genre even while enriching everything about it that its fans love and require. IMO, the end result—and including the sequel trilogy—ranks below Tolkien and Wolfe only as the best such type of story I have ever read.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Existentialist fantasy.
Cleverly written.
Brutal and dark.

That's all you really need to know before tackling these novels. That and the fact that this is one of the finest trilogy's ever penned, period.

At a surface level, these fantasy novels would appear as nothing out of the ordinary - outcast get's cast off into a fantasy world, is the only one who can save the land, is destined to destroy great evil threatening it yada yada. But Thomas Covenant is a bitter leper, and refuses to acknowledge the land a real because to do so would lead to the end of his own sanity...

It is this manipulation of fantasy conventions that Donaldson employs to creative a novel of intricate paradoxes and intelligent commentaries on how we deal with pain in our lives - and the cost dwelling on our misfortunes. Thomas Covenant is a despicable character, but his plight, and more importantly the lands is a compelling one.

Of course, all this wouldn't matter if the story was weak. Lord Foul's Bane (the first of the trilogy) falters a little in this department, it lingers to long on certain aspects, and Covenant is frustrating to the point of wanting to make you throw the book across the room. But it is worth persisting, because the two novels that follow (The Illearth War, The Power that Preserves) are incredible. The scope and charters really come into their own - far from the cliche's that they originally appeared to be. Quite frankly, some of the moments in these two books surpass almost anything else I have ever read, their passion is truly inspiring. The battle scenes that fill the books are also worth mentioning, unique and well written, they surpass many of their peers, putting great wars like those in Lord of the Rings to shame.

However, this may not be for everyone. As I said, the first book is weak compared the rest of the trilogy and contains a scene near the start so repulsive that it might deter some readers from persisting. Furthermore, Donaldson's operatic style and elaborate language might also annoy some. Finally, the brutality may be just too much for some readers, at it's darkest moments it will leave you feeling gutted in ways that other fantasy books skimpily don't.

In a genre full of happy endings, loveable heroes, simplistic plots and themes no deeper than good and evil "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" sticks out like a sore thumb. It transcends it's genre, and firmly places itself amongst the ranks of one of the greatest series ever written. It might turn some readers off but there is no denying this is nothing short of a masterpiece.

[Jan-Maat]

This series, famed for its vocabulary, offers a twist on the familiar person transported into an alternative fantasy existence. Here instead of the usual blasé acceptance the hero can't believe what has happened to them and won't believe what has happened to them. The doubt is established that everything might be a figment of the hero's imagination. The author encourages the doubt by having each of the hero's three visits to the fantastical 'The Land' precipitated each time by an accident in which the hero looses consciousness. This game with the reader was spoiled by the publication of Gilden Fire which was written from the point of view of one of the denizens of 'The Land', but there you go.

Those three, eventually four, visits are quite nice in that things in this other world steadily get worse, the emotional direction of the series tends downwards with brief remissions of humour.

In addition to the real world character who, reasonably enough, doesn't believe what he's seeing the backdrop features a good creator who can't intervene in his creation without destroying it and is therefore obliged to use the hero, Thomas Covenant, as his tool or champion and the traditional Dark Lord who is trying to destroy everything because that's what he does. This furthers the idea that the whole thing is a figment of the hero's imagination and simply represents two aspects of his personality fighting it out during periods of unconsciousness.

In the final volume the evil Dark Lord was defeated and the series was resolved. But then Donaldson brought back his earlier characters to create a second series. And then a third. This rather removes the threat of danger or the pleasure of resolution from the reading.

[A. Dawes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Donaldson's works, but whether I'd still love them is another story altogether. I read the first novel of his most recent return to the world a few years ago, and found it incredibly thin and dull. I won't read the sequel, but I'm secretly hoping that the original chronicles were as marvelous as I remembered them to be....

At the time I read the first trilogy, I'd just re-read Tolkien and was indulging in other high/epic fantasy novelists, which were popular at the time: Feist, Wurtz. MccAffrey, Eddings, Brooks, Weis & Hickman, and a few Forgotten Realms novels. Donaldson, however, felt the freshest and most capable of these writers (outside of Tolkien). The reason was that Donaldson successfully challenged conventions of the high fantasy genre by utilising a true anti-hero as the protagonist. Thomas Covenant isn't just a leper: he's bitter, self-loathing and also loathes society. He has lost all passion for life. His physical condition in a way, is a very vivid representation of his tortured soul. While the other fictional heroes at the time were at heart, good and just, Covenant's values were questionable for the most part.

Donaldson handles the leprosy well. His father was a doctor in India who specialised in treating lepers, so the details feel authentic.

Yet when Covenant the Leper is thrust into a fantastic world, where his physical scarring and symptoms vanish, he succumbs to the most unforgivable and heinous of acts, and commits rape. How can you support an anti-hero after that? Yet Donaldson manages it, and this bitter, twisted hero makes for one of the great characters of epic fantasy. In a way, I've only seen George RR Martin handle flawed anti-heroes as successfully (Jamie's rise from tossing Bran off the balcony).

I'm hoping that these original chronicles are still being read. I'm hoping they haven't dated too much. The details and layers made it far more sophisticated than Eddings and Brooks at the time. I'm also hoping that Donaldson's latest additions to the series aren't reflective of the original novels - but you never know....It's all about blind hope really, so I'm not re-reading the original trilogy just in case it spoils the memories.

Recommended for lovers of rich, tapestry-like fantasies with a dark edge.

[Dantalion64 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, amazing books. Turns romantic, sylvan fantasy on its ear. Many people complain about these books because it moves slowly, or because the main character is reprehensible. The only thing I can say is “Deal.” When you have a series of books centering on the salvation of a lost and embittered man, he’s not going to start out being a nice guy! If you want your fantasy heroes to be handsome, valorous, strong, and virtuous, go re-read Tolkien. These books are not about saving the world from evil; they’re really about pain, guilt, redemption, and the consequences of cleaving to one’s beliefs. They’re not for the faint of heart, and they aren’t light reading, but they’re an immensely satisfying, adult fantasy series. I've read these books at least a dozen times, and it's been a different experience each time.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Part of him wanted to weep... but his purpose was rigid within him. He felt he could not bend to gentleness without breaking.”

And part of me wanting to dive out a window. This was one of the least satisfying, uninspired and ponderous series Ive had the misfortune and stubbornness to slog through. Anti -hero's should be written in a way that the reader develops some shred of empathy or understanding for, otherwise you're left with a story centered around a character that you don't give a damn about. Thomas Covenant is a selfish and bitter character who's sole redeeming quality is that the reader be expected to pity him. This story was depressing, bland and forgettable.

[Felicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've tried. And tried. And it will never happen. I will never like this series. I made myself read the first trilogy last year, in order to get past the infamous first scene (You know what I'm talking about). I hated it. So, put it in the "life is too short" category! Some people love this series. So, try it if you'd like.

[Richard Benoit · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I first read all the glowing reviews for this series, I thought I had found a winner. I purchased all of the first three books of the initial trilogy. I assumed with so many great recommendations I couldn't go wrong. Boy was I wrong! The hero?, Thomas Covenant ( a leper), whines, cries and rages his way thru page after page after page. Covenant is one of the most despicable characters I have ever come upon. A quarter of the way into the book a young, innocent girl of 16 tries to befriend Covenant, takes him to her home to eat and meet her family, and he repays her by losing his temper and raping her. At this point I threw the book down and refused to read anymore. The image of a leper molesting a child was too much for me. After a few days I decided that something must radically change in the plot because the book has so many good reviews. There must be some redeeming change in his character to make him worthy of being the hero. So I decided to read the rest of it. I shouldn't have bothered. Covenant doesn't alter his behavior one bit. He whines, he cries, he argues, he rages. When attacked, his first inclination is to hide and cower. He doesn't find the will to fight until he is so terrified that he loses his temper and slaughters his assailant. And then he's ashamed of himself rages some more because he's been forced to kill. I found myself rooting for the bad guys, hoping one of them would lop his head off. That way the story could continue without him in it. I threw the book in the trash along with parts 2 & 3 unread. I won't have that kind of drivel on my bookshelf. Someone might come across it and think I enjoyed it! If you enjoy fantasy that doesn't follow the usual tired and overused plot lines, you should check out a series by Kate Elliot called "Crown Of Stars". It's everything intelligent fantasy should be.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am one of those who love love love this series, and I think one of the reasons is that it is so dense and unappealing. We don't like the main character, but we're not meant to, we can't really understand the Land because of barriers put up and it's inherent strangeness but then there are the parts that linger, the phrases and ideas, you find yourself mouthing along as Foamfollower repeats "joy is in the ears that hear" or Mhoram's dread declaration that "in dreams i hear him laughing"

the story is reasonably simple, following a bizarre altercation with a beggar Covenant is knocked down by a police car, but wakes up in a place called the Land where a shadowy ominous figure gives him a message, either you can help me now and I'll attack you in 49 years, giving you plenty of time to prepare and still lose, or you can be defeated now by this lesser evil.
Covenant believes the whole thing to be a dream at first but later maintains that the Land cannot be real even when it's determined to prove otherwise. But one thing Donaldson never does is actually say whether or not the Land is real or a figment of Covenant's authorial imagination. The Land wants him not to experience guilt, because dear god does he feel guilty for everything, including at one point walking on grass, but to accept that just because he is ill that he is not powerless.
The first time you read it it's about the story and you want to slap Covenant and shout at him and say look at the world you're allowing to be destroyed.
The second time it's about the twists you missed the first time, Lord Foul's sneaky machinations and the Ravers, the desolation of the Bloodguard "womanless, ascetic, and old" and the slow desperation of the Lords, even when you understand Covenant's enforced antipathy.
The third time it's about the language, the way he fits words together, although I'll be the first to admit he often uses $10 words when something simple would be just as effective, there is a scene about being left untransmogrified that had me scrabbling for my dictionary, and feeling cheated. It's Elena's "look of apocalypse" and the "sense of wrongness" and "joy is in the ears that hear,"
I know why people hate it, I'm not the world's biggest fan of the second series, finding it inferior to this one, and I'm holding off on the third until it's finished, but for once it's not a fantasy book about a perfect hero, or Tolkien and his trees, it's a world we feel the lack of when we close the book.

i think it's best to let the book sell itself

" "We have beauty, too. We call it 'scenery'"

"'Scenery.'" Mhoram echoed. "The word is strange to me--but I do not like the sound."

Covenant felt oddly shaken, as if he has just looked over his shoulder and found himself standing too close to a precipice. "It means that beauty is something extra, " he rasped. "It's nice, but we can live without it."

"Without?" Mhoram's gaze glittered dangerously.

And from behind him Foamfollower breathed in ashtonishment, "Life without beauty? Ah, my friend! How do you resist despair?""

[Katilian · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books were a reread, although I was a teenager when I first encountered them and didn't remember too much of the plot. Honestly, I have admiration for the concept of this series more than I have liking for the actual books. On the one hand, you have a main character who is a complete jackass--probably the first antihero that I ever encountered, now that I think about it. It's not that he doesn't have a reason to be a jackass; he is, after all, battling leprosy. It's that he doesn't do it with any grace, that he doesn't deal with the admittedly bizarre situation that he finds himself in, that he spends every second thinking of himself only, that he has more mood swings than a teenage girl... he's hard to deal with. Add to that Donaldson's swallowing a thesaurus and tendency not to either show nor tell enough, and you'd think you had a disaster on your hands.

On the other hand, you have a fascinating premise: the main character is a leper, he's brought into a beautiful, magical world, he's impossibly healed, and he doesn't believe a bit of it. He's the main hope of a group of people who don't, as far as he's concerned, really exist. And those people are the ones that draw me in, make me want to read about them: Lord Mhoram, who is both noble and totally human; Saltheart Foamfollower, the loyal giant who struggles with his desire to turn against what he believes in; Hile Troy, a man from our world who loves the Land more than anything; Bannor, the unsleeping guardsman who constantly saves Covenant's life, much to Covenant's dismay. These people and more, plus the fascinating world of the Land, make the books worth reading even when you want to kick Covenant's backside and suggest he grow up a little.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The entire Chronicles by Donaldson is one of my all-time favorites. Such a fascinating concept, to give us a main character who is not heroic but must in the end redeem the sacrifices made on his behalf. Out of all the fantasy I've read I think Donaldson is the best writer I've come across in the genre.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars, but I do have a soft spot for classical fantasy...

So. Lemme vent. Covenant is an almost impossible to like character. He is sick, weak, a rapist, a coward, fearful, disdainful and has almost no care or understanding for other people apart from himself. And that's just the first 70 pages of the book... But, you know, I grew rather fond of him over the course of the first three books. He is a complete anti-hero. First of all, he suffers from leprosy: if there is another way in which to describe a character as "dirty-from-the-inside", I know not of it. Second of all, he genuinely rapes a fifteen year old virgin a day after he met her inside of his "dream" - this other world called The Land, where the Earth actually heals you. And then throughout the books, people die for him, sacrifice themselves for him, offer him the gift of their own existence, all while he still firmly believes he is dreaming of a fantasy world and it's all inside of his head. It is genuinely difficult to find any sympathy for him: he keeps making stupid mistakes, keeps misunderstanding signs, keeps being a coward over and over and over again. His thought process might just drive you mad. And yet, despite all of this, he is exactly the kind of character I love reading about. He is complex, he fights for his own survival, he makes human mistakes because he is the embodiment of human fear and somehow, takes you through all the important feelings and emotions that humans go through. So yeah, I quite like Thomas Covenant. He's a dick, but I like him.

The writing has been hailed to match Tolkien's - I can't agree. Yes, this is an epic fantasy, a classical fantasy, the kind where you have maps at the beginning of the book, but it doesn't touch on the might that "Lord of the Rings" bears. It's complex, though not complex enough. And the writing can be at times blunt, though it keeps a steady pace throughout.

Is it too long? Maybe. But is any other fantasy saga too long? Probably. All of them contain thousands of pages of story, but that is part of the magic that fantasy books give you: so much world in which to get so absolutely lost. This volume, which contains the first three books, is 1150 pages long, and I have read it in three days. That tells you a lot about my willingness to avoid my responsibilities, as well as how gripping this work still is. I keep wanting to know what's going to happen next.

Should you read it? Yes, if you're a fantasy fan: magic and nonexistent lands, Giants and monsters, if all of these things touch your imagination, you maybe should. No, if you hate fantasy and have no patience for diseased characters and rotten decisions. You decide.

[Chrystal Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in high school, and it made quite an impression.

I liked it very much. It has big bones, like Tolkein's work, but is more gritty, more morally complex.

The main character is a strong anti-hero (something I had not encountered much before), deeply flawed, and the structure of the alter-universe lends itself well to the notion of a free-will world.

Like a darker, infinitely more grown-up cousin of The Chronicles of Narnia, this lends itself well to discussion of theology. However, it stands on its own, and you have to look to find that aspect.

Upon graduation, I left "The Land, to those who know it" in the senior year "Will and Prophesy".
Sadly, my handwriting was not that great, and it was published as "The HAND, to those who know it." Not the same, even a little.

Donaldson wrote another trilogy in this world, but I did not take to it as I did to the first three books. Enjoy the first three, and see the ideas and world creep into your mental vocabulary.

[Ron Ecklebarger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Covenant had leprosy. We don’t hear a lot about leprosy these days, but the mere sound of the word still conjures up images of deformed and mangled flesh. What leprosy does is kill the nerve endings so you lose all feeling. When you can’t feel pain, you can easily overlook a small injury, which can then become infected and cause big problems. That is how he lost his right pinky and ring finger. Such was the reality of Covenant’s life.

Even though the progress of his disease was halted and he was not really contagious, he was shunned by everyone around. Even his wife, who knew the facts, couldn’t handle the thought of raising their young son with a leper, so she took the boy and left. As the story opens we find a solitary man whose body feels nothing and whose spirit and soul have become deadened as well. His focus is survival, and while he is alive, few would call it living. He is simply existing.

Out of this isolated existence, Covenant is summoned to The Land. It is another world so full of life that even his dead nerves are rejuvenated. In addition to coping with his physical healing, his missing fingers make him a dead ringer for the Land’s mythic hero. To top it off, his white gold wedding ring is a talisman of enormous power and everyone expects him to save The Land from Lord Foul. All this is more than Covenant can handle. Any one of us would question our sanity if we woke up in another world, but Covenant was already on the edge. The only way he can keep from going off the deep end is to deny it all – it is only a dream. Hence his moniker, Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

I first read these books as a teen in the early ‘80s. I read them again last year. Donaldson does a magnificent job creating another world. By the end, you can almost believe the land is real, whether Covenant does or not. I think his greatest creation, however, are the characters. You will grow to really care about what happens to them and their home. Against that backdrop is Thomas Covenant – one messy guy. You will feel Covenant’s pain and understand his stugle, and yet you will also want him to get his act together since he is The Land’s only hope. He is not quite an anti-hero, but he certainly finds about every way possible to screw-up his new life in The Land.

Will he manage to get a grip on himself long enough to save The Land? You’ll have to read and find out.

[Kostas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seven Wards of ancient Lore
For Land’s protection, wall and door;
And one High Lord to wield the Law
To keep all uncorrupt Earth’s Power’s core.

Seven Words for ill’s despite –
Banes for evil’s dooming wight:
And one pure Lord to hold the Staff
To bar the Land from Foul’s betraying sight.

Seven hells for failed faith,
For Land’s betrayers, man and wraith:
And one brave Lord to deal the doom
To keep the blacking light from Beauty’s bloom.

Since his debut in the late 70s, Stephen R. Donaldson – coming from a generation when fantasy was still growing – has been one of the most prominent figures in the field, as he became one of the first writers of that era that shaped the genre into what it is today, taking the standards of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and other beloved and classic works, and giving them a new breath – a long career that, through the scope of his imagination, managed to bring him a huge critical and commercial success, as well as the love of the readers.
And in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, the first omnibus volume of the titular series collecting the first three books: Lord Foul’s Bane, The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves, Donaldson builds his own fantastic world, travelling us in a three-legged story arc of Lords and Bloodguards, Giants and great horses, and dark servants and evil creatures, but also in three adventures of unbelief and bitterness, legends of old and lore, and wild magic and power; in a mature, sophisticated epic fantasy trilogy.

Lord Foul’s Bane (8/10)

For more than ten times a hundred centuries since the Ritual of Desecration, when High Lord Kevin – direct descendant of the legendary Berek Halfhand, the Lord-Fatherer, and possessor of the lore of Seven Wards – fell victim to the manipulations of Lord Foul the Despiser before finally confronting him in battle, bringing a catastrophe that forced them to flee from everything they loved and cared for, the people of the Land have chosen a different path since their return from their exile, swearing and preserving the Oath of Peace, and finding hope again in their hearts; but now, with the long-lost ancient Staff of Law to have fallen at the hands of a horrible, mad creature, calling to his will dark forces in search for the bane known as the Illearth Stone, a new evil arises – but Thomas Covenant, having been diagnosed with the long-term disease of leprosy these past six months, outcasted by the society and divorced by his wife, has been living in the misery of all that he lost.
Falling in the way of an oncoming police car in one of his rare trips to the town, wanting desperately to pay in person his phone bill and regain his status among the society, Covenant will be transported as if in a dream to another world, and to a strange land beyond any imagination.
Yet, with the ignorance – and the unaccustomed sympathy – of this strange world towards his disease to have filled his heart and his mind with despair and bitterness, disbelieving everything he sees as a figment of his imagination, when he’s given the task to deliver a message to the Council of Lords, and the legends of Berek and the white gold wielder are reignited, Covenant will find himself unwillingly along with a company on a Quest, trapped between Lord Foul’s schemes and his seeming destiny – a destiny that, if he fails to accept it, could bring the Land to its doom.

Spending a part of his youth in India, where his father – a medical missionary – worked with lepers, giving him a first-hand experience of the consequences and the impact of the disease, Stephen R. Donaldson – bringing together two seemingly incompatible ideas: leprosy and fantasy – builds his own fantastic world, taking us in Lord Foul’s Bane to the communities of Mithil Stonedown and Soaring Woodhelven, where their inhabitants follow respectively the ways of rhadhamaerl, the stone-lore – the first, and only Ward that has been discovered since the Desecration – and of lillianrill, the lost wood-lore, living their life in Peace and bounteousness among the people and creatures alike; to Revelstone, the mountain city of the Lords, where – built by the Giants at the age of Old Lord Damelon in the name of friendship – the Council rules in Lord’s Keep with fairness and benevolence, guarded under the unyielding Vow of the Bloodguards; and to the Plains of Ra, where the Ramen, having made their life-work to serve the Ranyhyn – the great, free horses – ward and defend the region from anyone or anything that seeks to do harm, and tending always for the fulfillment of their wishes.
As well as to Mount Thunder, Peak of the Fire-Lions – a mystical mountain where once High Lord Kevin confronted Lord Foul, the Grey Slayer, possessing deep into its heart banes of immense impact, and where now dwell in its catacombs outcasted creatures of the Land, filling them with their disgusting ways that have made it a filthy, but also an inapproachable place.

A first book in which, combining the experiences of his young life with his love for fantasy, Donaldson creates through his arcane language and sophisticated, mythopoetic writing a mature, epic story of good vs evil full of moral messages, and travelling us in a world of Lords, Bloodguards, Giants, great horses, Wraiths and evil creatures, but also in an adventure of unbelief and bitterness, legends of old and mythical figures, and lore and wild magic – a story that, having for a main protagonist a harsh, cynical, almost unlikable hero, making him one of the most challenging characters in the history of the genre, shows us through the disease of leprosy its impact on his day to day life: from the aversion of the society to his own self that come in contrary with the wondrous, full of health and life world of the Land, and creating sceneries both magical and horrific that push you far beyond your comfort zone, but managing however to deliver in the end something that not only has substance but actually feels real.

The Illearth War (9/10)

Forty years have passed since the Quest for the Staff of Law, and the perils they faced; yet now, with Lord Foul the Despiser to have grown and gathered through the corruption of the Illearth Stone an army full of evil beings, preparing his strength to march against them in his desire to fulfill the prophecy of his dominion and to end his eternal exile, an unprecedented war nears in the Land, leaving in the hearts of its people a shadow of uncertainty for its future – but Thomas Covenant, having awakened in the hospital from his coma four hours after his accident, returning from the dream of his delusion to the real world, has been trying to pick up the last remnants of his miserable life.
Tripping and hitting his head during an unexpected phone call from his ex-wife, Joan, after his short-lived escapade to the city, having felt a strong need to find something to fight the delusion with reality, Covenant will be summoned as if by fate’s curse back to the Land, transporting him unwillingly once again into the world of his dreams.
Nevertheless, with his continued unbelief of the existence of this otherworldly place to have filled him with anger, convincing himself that everything he sees is a construct of his subconscious, when the deeds of his past rush suddenly back, and their consequences come not much later to his realization, Covenant will find himself immersed in his pain and self-judgment, divided between the struggle of his madness and his need for survival.

Meanwhile, Warmark Hile Troy, commander of the most honorable rank in army of Lord’s Keep, having been summoned by accident much earlier in the Land instead of Thomas Covenant due to his birth defect, bringing him into a magical world that gave him the possibility to become something more than he ever dreamed of, has been planing his strategies for the coming war, calculating the best defense that will prevent the destruction of all that he so recently loved and admired.
But, with Covenant’s conduct since his arrival to have caused a confusion among them, unabling to understand the reasons of his denial, when dark tidings arrive in Lord’s Keep, and his plans for the war suddenly take an unexpected turn, Troy will find himself leading a meager force of warriors, Lords and Bloodguards against the huge army of the enemy, battling with all his will and courage to preserve the hope and save the Land from Corruption.

However, with the war having taken much greater dimensions than they originally expected, forcing them to seek other means to oppose its Corruption, when Lord Foul’s hordes corner them in a place with no escape, and their desperate need to discover Kevin’s Lore leads them once more deep into the Despiser’s manipulations, Covenant and Troy will be faced with their inner selves, struggling to find their purpose amongst this battle – a battle that, if they fail to overcome their struggles, could cost the Land everything that is good and pure.

Following the path of his award-winning first book, Lord’s Foul Bane, that laid the foundations of his imagination, combining two seemingly incompatible ideas and turning them into a fantasy epic, Stephen R. Donaldson returns with a greater expansion of his fantastic world, taking us in The Illearth War to the Close of Revelstone where the Lords, along with the Warmark and their special guests, counsel on the issues of the Land at times of peace and war alike, trying always to take through their Oath decisions with fairness and impartiality; to Revelwood, the tree city of the Loresraat, where the Lorewardens and their apprentices train in the ways of the Staff and Sword, seeking to relearn the long-lost Lore of Kevin; and to Seaserch, the land of the Unhomed, where – given during the age of Damelon Giantfriend – the long-living, gay Giants have built their own society, sharing amongst them their love for long tales and songs as they strive to discover their homeland in their ongoing, hopeless exploration.
As well as to Garroting Deep, the last of the four remnants of the One Forest, where Caerroil Wildwood – a Forestal, protector and servant of the tree-soul – guards the Forest from those that seek evil, possessing powers beyond the imagination of mortals; and finally to Melenkurion Skyweir, the highest mountain across the Land, where deep into its cavern lies the root of the Earthpower: a force that supports and nourishes the world with life, capable of offering to those that harness it extraordinary thaumaturgic, paranormal and, at the wrong hands, even devastating properties, making it the most respected but also most dreadful power in the Land.

A second book in which, divided into three parts, bringing a bigger plot as well as more points of view, Donaldson builds through the same style of sophistication and moral themes his world even more than before, enriching it in mythopoeia and fantasy, and travelling us in a story of Lords, warriors, Lorewardens, ancient elementals, spectral entities, dark servants and abominable creatures, but also in an adventure of denial and self-judgment, sacrifice and survival, and power and war – a second book which, focusing this time on two protagonists who prove from the very beginning completely opposite with each another, as they see their inabilities – for better or worse – with their own thinking, depthens into the inner struggles, their concerns and doubts of the two characters, revealing the issues that burn them with a hard reality, and making a story not just deeper but also much greater as well.

The Power That Preserves (10/10)

Seven years have passed since the breaking of the Law of Death, and the ordeals that they went through; yet now, with Lord Foul’s new, vast army to have marched into the Centre Plains under the command of Satanfist Raver, the right hand of the Grey Slayer, besieging and marauding one place after the other and forcing their inhabitants to seek refuge in the safety of Lord’s Keep, the fate of the Land hangs in a balance, leaving its people and everything they ever loved and cared for at the brink of doom – but Thomas Covenant, having fallen in stupor for more than thirty hours since his return from the delusion of his dreams, waking up in the real world filled with memories of pain and guilt, has been crying inwardly his desperation for help.
Tripping and stumbling down on a hillside in the woods in an effort to rescue a little girl in need after his ghostings at the outskirts of the city, having wanted desperately to find a vestige of consolation and companionship amongst real people, Covenant will feel again as if from a presage the summons of the Land, drawing him unwillingly again through other dimensions into the delusion of his dreams.
Nevertheless, with the exigency of the little girl to have brought him closer than ever to the sole, true act of responsibility, refusing with all his will to give in to the need of his dreams, when he finally finds deep in his heart purpose, and a second chance is given him to restitute for his past, Covenant will find himself in a perilous journey of retribution, traversing through a preternatural winter to confront the source of his hate.

At the same time, Mhoram son of Variol, High Lord by the choice of the Council of Revelstone, having fallen onto his shoulders the heavy burden of his predecessors, leaving upon him the task to defend Lord’s Keep and the people of the Land from the raving hordes of Satanfist, has been struggling with himself from revealing the knowledge of his secret, wanting to keep their hope alive as much as possible from its dooming power.
But, with his recent failure to persuade Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever and white gold wielder, to respond to the utter need of the Land, losing the last hope that could aid them against the Despiser, when Satanfist lays siege to the Keep itself, and the unwavering ferocity of his hordes lead the people behind the walls to hunger and madness, Mhoram will find himself overwhelmed with an impossible task, torn between his terrible secret and the desperation of their survival.

Meanwhile, Triock, now one of Mithil Stonedown’s Circle of elders, having embarked on a quest for the only person who possesses the knowledge of the lomillialor, the High Wood, wishing to learn the uses of its power and to send an urgent message to the Keep before it is too late, will be faced with his own ordeals, bringing him face-to-face with unspeakable forces that will try everything he holds true.

However, with the Despiser’s war against the Land to have proved much more costly than they’d ever imagined, taking away from its people every vestige of their strength and hope, when Satanfist – assisted by the power of the Illearth Stone – pushes his hordes towards the Keep for a final blow, and Lord Foul summons to his will forces beyond death to complete his dominion, Covenant, Mhoram, and Triock will be faced with their greatest challenges, bringing them before Despite that will threaten to corrupt the very core of their hearts – a Despite that, if they fail to deny it and stand up for what they care about, could doom the Land for ever to an eternity of evil.

Bringing to completion the first cycle of his cynical protagonist who gave birth to his own fantastic world, creating through his imagination a stunning and original epic in scope and sophistication, Stephen R. Donaldson plunges us deep into Lord Foul’s war, taking us in The Power That Preserves at the battlements of Revelstone, where in front of the Giant wrought city stands the watchtower, overseeing as an armed guard the fields beyond, and providing through its impenetrable gate and underground tunnel the sole access to those who seek to enter its inner grounds, as well as the Keep’s first defence; to the Ramen covert, the last of the once several hidden refuges of the Plains of Ra, where their nomadic families tend the most grevious injuries of the Ranyhyn, training the Cords – the second highest in rank after the Manethralls – in the secret rites of Maneing; and to the Colossus, where the monolithic stone – having now remained silent for millennia – once uttered the power of the One Forest at the edge of Landsdrop, inderdicting passage to evil in the Upper Land.
As well as to Ridjeck Thome, the very heart of Lord Foul’s dominion, where the Despiser spreads his malice across the Spoiled Plains, corrupting and ravaging through his continuous preternatural experiments everything that lives and breaths, and making it one of the darkest places in the Land.

A third book in which, bringing yet again even more points of view than before that add further layers to his plot and world-building, Donaldson culminates the first trilogy at the highest point of sophistication and moral issues, combining together all the characteristics of his writing and imagination that made it stand out from the very beginning, and travelling us in a multi-tiered epic story of the Lords, Manethralls, Unfettered Ones, incarnate nightmares, raving creatures and monstrous creations, but also in an adventure of hate and retribution, responsibility and purpose, and dominion and war – a third book which, showing through its characters both sides of the coin: of good and evil, of right and wrong, and of choice and coercion, manages to deliver a fully rewarding ending to the First Chronicles, making it the best, and most favourite one out of the three that leaves you fulfilled and content for all the hardship’s of his protagonist.

All in all, The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever is an exceptional, mature epic fantasy trilogy, with Stephen R. Donaldson building – through his language, writing and mythopoeia – a series of sophistication and moral themes that travels us into a magical world of wonder, depth and imagination – a series which, although has a challenging, almost unlikable protagonist, manages to stand on its own right next to J.R.R. Tolkien's epic, and to leave its own landmark in the history of the genre.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent dark fantasy series, remarkably original, particularly for its unlikeable anti-hero Thomas Covenant, a man with leprosy who finds himself thrown into an epic conflict in a fantasy world which may be a dream following a terrible accident in the "real" world.

[Jimmi Zito · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot say enough good things about this series. From beginning to end the series does not disappoint. I am looking forward to the conclusion of the series.

A word of caution though. This is a dark series, and it is extremely hard to read at times. It will make you angry, I mean really angry. This is not just a story of one man against evil, this is a story about redemption. The main character again, and again tries to overcome and make-up for unspeakable acts of violence that he himself has performed.

These books will startle you with both their power and their wisdom. A must read for any reader of sci-fi and fantasy. In fact this work stands alone in the genre as something that should be read not only by students of fantasy, but students of higher literature as well.

A true work of art!

[Rob Hermanowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, epic fantasy series, second only to Tolkein, in my opinion. It has a similar depth and background that Tolkein brought to his universe. Not always an easy read, but it rewards patience. A great hero/antihero is born in Thomas Covenant!

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this ages ago... loved it. Many people call it depressing and the character unappealing because he is so awful. I saw him as a struggling soul and was rooting for him.

[james · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning - there is an implied rape scene in the early chapters of book one. It sets up the main character to develop the internal conflict within himself and his disease, as well as shapes later relationships in the first chronicles.

[Dr M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Donaldson's epic The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever doubtlessly belong among the classics of fantasy literature, and at least among fantasy readers of my own age, they are considered part of what you are expected to have read. Now I finally have.

It begins well, with the unlikely protagonist Thomas Covenant -- a best-selling author fallen victim to leprosy who is thrown into a parallel world -- arriving in the Land, a place that cannot possibly exist and which Covenant refuses to take seriously. The Land is introduced to us as a mystic, magic and half-intangible place, setting a melancholy mood that is very appealing to me. However, as the story of the first book unfolds, the Land begins to take on the shape of any fantasy world in the tradition of Tolkien. There are points where the similarities between the Land and Tolkien's Middle Earth are on the verge of plagiarism. Such dismissals are highly unfair, however, because firstly the similarities are mostly in the "literary props" used by Donaldson to tell the story of the character of Thomas Covenant, and secondly because Donaldson clearly builds on his own ideas. Stephen Donaldson is not telling the story of the Ring of power. The white gold ring, the Staff of Law, the Illearth Stone, and indeed the entire Land itself are only the backdrop to the story of Thomas Covenants inner struggles.

The underlying idea for the story is good and original, but unfortunately any good idea has to be transformed into prose for a book to be written and read, and Donaldson is not quite up to the challenge. There are many points that may be discussed, but in order not to repeat Donaldson's principal mistake and make my own telling too long, I will just mention those things that matter most: The story is rather long and slow at many points and of rather average quality, but here and there are a few chapters that are simply brilliant, where all of a sudden Donaldson's flowery, unwieldy and long-winded language suddenly works. The key feature of Covenant's character is his disbelief in the reality of the Land. Unfortunately Donaldson won't let his reader share this unbelief, but rather goes on to tell his story from points of view that make sense only if the reader decides that the Land is really real, and not a figment of Covenant's imagination. This ruins the illusion for me, and makes Covenant a rather less interesting anti-hero. Over all, character development, while present, doesn't always match the pace of the story. This all boils down to two things: the story is much too long, and it is told in a rather too fancy language, which seems contrived rather than poetic.

These books might have been brilliant if Donaldson had made the story one third of the length, and if he had allowed himself a somewhat more conversant English. If you are a fantasy fan, then by all means do read these classic books, but if you are just looking for a good piece of fantasy, then I'd suggest taking a look at for example Ursula K. LeGuin's stories about Earthsea instead.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this series of 6 books (I am including the following trilogy) a great many more stars - I would. I first read these when I was 18, first year at college, in hospital for an appendectomy, needed something to read, as a treat my parents got me these - well the first three anyway. I have loved them ever since and have reread them nearly as many times as I have Jane Eyre (yes I know, that's a strange combination). I love Thomas - I love that he is flawed and selfish and horrible at times, you can appreciate where all that comes from and it makes the story. The land has more than enough heroes ready to sacrifice everything to balance Thomas' faults. Actually just writing this review makes me want to read them all over again.

[Ice Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a tendency to compare fantasy fiction using Tolkien as a benchmark. Often themes are repeated and the mix of characters similar. However some books mark new ground, and for me, this was one of those series that did so. As often is the case, I found the first triology was the best, even if the last one is not yet ended. If I was to have a sub category of 'books you cant put down and end up reading all night' this is one of them.

[Steve Nobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best fantasy books of its kind. I think it is unfair to compare any books to Tolkien but this trilogy is pure genius. Stephen Donaldson is a master world builder and so brilliant in weaving believable characters into a world known as "The Land." The plot and dialogue is masterful and the hero is quite out of the ordinary. Tough and gritty in parts. I was gripped from start to finish. Pure magic.

[Ike Sharpless · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wordy and disturbing mess - I only made it through around book five - but Donaldson's stories are powerfully told and deeply polyvalent. Maybe I'll finish the Chronicles one of these days...

[David Katzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for all ten books in the series. My re-read of the first six books was colored through the lens of nostalgia. The first two trilogies affected me a great deal as a youth—I read them at some point during high school. When I saw that Donaldson had completed the story arc with The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, a four-book tetralogy, I decided to return to the originals and read them all in sequence.

I regret the decision, but now at least I’ve completed them. I do believe that because the first series in particular is so unique, Donaldson deserved to be given the chance to resolve the story. The ending brought many strands together with a feeling of near-completion, but unfortunately his style ruined the last four books for me.

The first six books affected me powerfully. They were the first fantasy novel that I had read that treated the reader like an adult (much more so than Lord of the Rings). It’s adult in several ways. First, the language. Donaldson uses advanced vocabulary unsparingly that requires most readers to keep a dictionary (app) handy. He doesn’t dumb it down for “young adults” or even for adults for that matter. He challenges you to use your brain, and as a child who joined Mensa and was constantly solving puzzles and playing complex games like Dungeons & Dragons, I ate up the challenge. I felt more mature reading it.

The second most obvious quality that struck me as different from all the other fantasy novels that I had read, is that the main character was radically unsympathetic. Antiheroes were not unknown to me at the time—I had read quite a bit of Michael Moorcock by this point, including Elric of Melnibone and the Cornelius Chronicles. But your typical anti-hero has redeeming qualities that are appealing to read even while they behave in “anti” ways. For example, they are usually charismatic. Or clever. Or unafraid. Whatever causes them to commit questionable acts, we enjoy reading their exploits, and they end up saving the day even if only for selfish reasons. Well, here’s where Donaldson parts ways the most dramatically. The main character is not only a bad person, but he is an unlikeable person. Thomas Covenant is irritable and difficult and unfunny. He is furious at the world because it treated him harshly. He’s bony and angular and diseased and anti-cuddly. He’s a cactus of a person. And on top of that, he commits a despicable act that makes him seem unredeemable. It happens in the first novel, Lord Foul’s Bane, and I don’t consider it a spoiler because I think anyone who goes into reading it should know about it in advance. It’s a central conundrum of much of the series, how do we as the reader respond to it and how do we feel about the author’s treatment of the topic. Thomas Covenant is sucked into the fantasy world known only as The Land, and he believes it is only a grand hallucination of some sort. He feels he’s gone insane. Enraged by his lack of control over himself and his situation (which is particularly acute for him because he has leprosy and his only real-world survival method is to remain in complete control of his interactions with his environment), he takes it out on a friendly young woman trying to help him by raping her.

This act brings up the ethical question of whether cruelty in a dream is real. Covenant believes (at that time) that The Land is a dream of some sort although it’s certainly not a typical dream. But if we are willing to accept that premise then how do we feel about violence toward a dream figure? How do we feel about rape in a story, if we want to look at it metafictionally? Over the course of the series, Donaldson touches on how the assault act psychologically harms the rapist. Covenant later can’t forgive himself and carries his own self-hatred with him for many years. He frequently seeks to atone for this action that he regrets. Yes, his victim suffers from the event but in what I would describe as stereotypical ways. The focus was never on her point of view. Which isn’t to say Donaldson dismisses it, but it’s not really his strong suit. He’s clearly an Existentialist of sorts, and we as a reader come to realize that whether the world is a grand hallucination or another actual dimension doesn’t matter—Covenant is defined by his choices. From a Buddhist perspective, all of existence is a dream. All is nothingness. And yet within this nothingness, our choices still matter. The act of rape degrades the actor as well as injures the victim. A contemporary feminist critique of the storyline might analyze the events from a different perspective. While personal agency and “responsibility” are not attributes to be utterly dismissed, the decentralized and abstract self is part of a social environment. And in fact, it is society/culture/civilization that permits rape to occur. Yes, we can and should punish criminal acts, but it’s our political and cultural environment that allows it to exist, and what is required to change is not “interior” but is instead social. This brings up what could be seen as a weakness of The Chronicles and Donaldson’s treatment of rape and other issues. In the world of The Land, it’s relatively devoid of politics. There is no political economy—no Capitalism to turn people, time, and materials into products. Society is relatively egalitarian between men and women with almost no patriarchy. Struggles tend to be either between evil and good—the forces of Lord Foul (the force of “despite” or despair) versus everyone else (who mean well but may unwittingly help Foul); or the struggles are between “races.” The entire story struck me as not quite racist but racialist. Tending to give each racial group common attributes in contrast with others. He’s somewhat essentialist in his creation of races. The Hurachai, the Ramen, the Giants, the Stonedowners, the Demondimspawn, the Elohim, etc. While there is disagreement between certain members of each group, Donaldson tends to emphasize similarities. At times, for example, I became uncomfortable that all the Hurachai were inscrutable, unemotional martial artists of supreme skill (and unifying telepathic abilities). It struck me as an Asian stereotype—like they were all Bruce Lee clones.

The violent sexual assault, an incestuous relationship (which isn’t portrayed as healthy but also isn’t utterly condemned), and lastly the focus on morality throughout the Chronicles are the other additional elements that made the series a truly adult story that never coddles the reader. We must wrestle with our own responses rather than simply accept the story as it is. Many readers may even just quit reading it and that is certainly a valid response. Or, just as Donaldson positions Covenant as the only man who can save The Land due to his possession of a white gold ring (the wedding band from his ex-wife) which gives him tremendous, dangerous magical powers…are we stuck with the book because it’s hard to put down? Because we grow to care about The Land too? More than we care about Covenant?

In the first two trilogies, Donaldson exhibits a dramatic writing style that walks a tightrope between grand and grandiose that is not balanced by any humor. Either you accept that emotions and dangers are always turned up to 11 or you become put off by the style, and he comes across as melodramatic and bombastic. For me, it worked (mostly) through the first two trilogies. When you get to book seven, he goes off the rails.

The last four books struck me as a parody of his own style. In book nine, the word “god” is repeated 131 times. Hell gets 140 mentions. Damn gets 73. The word “mien” (you know, instead of “expression”) gets 9 mentions in book nine and 25 in book ten. Book ten finds “hell” repeated 181 times, “god” 168 times, “innominate” gets 5 mentions and “We are Giants” is spoken 14 times. Not to mention “We are Haruchai” or “We are Ramen.” Heavy handed much? Throughout the final four, Donaldson dedicates a tremendous volume of dialogue toward justifying and rationalizing the plot. He seems to complexify things in order to create barriers and challenges to raise the stakes but then feels the need to put a lot of effort into explaining them. Too many unnecessary details parsed…much like theology.

Covenant and the other main character, Linden Avery, who joins us in the second trilogy, are always plagued by self-doubt. But by book eight, the self-doubt becomes unbearable. It may authentically represent a struggle that most of us face but for fuck’s sake I don’t want to read about characters constantly doubting themselves. It’s beyond tedious. And the romance between Covenant and Linden is not epic, it’s cloying and saccharineBoth of them struggle with power and feel unworthy of it. They feel that if they accept too much power then they become dangerous. They fear responsibility and must overcome their fear of using power in order to succeed. This strikes me as a thematic concern out-of-date with our times. It feels like a meaningless abstract Existential crisis. “I have so much power I’m afraid to use it.” I keep coming back to the fact that our current struggles are about the “everyperson” being faced with a deficit of power. Corrupt figures like Trump and McConnell have no qualms about using their power. They have no inner struggle. The rest of us humanity are oppressed. So who could possibly relate to this premise of having too much power and being afraid to use it? It seems like an irrelevant out-of-date intellectual debate occurring repeatedly throughout the story.

How does Donaldson reflect on religion in The Chronicles? In general, I’d say ambiguously. I did a little research and found an interview with Donaldson where he talks about being raised as a Fundamentalist Christian and so he understands that mindset well. He said that aspects of that way of thinking remain with him, and he considers himself a “missionary for literature.” Personally, I find Biblical symbolism to be rather pompous in literature, but at the same time I find blasphemy to be generally amusing and entertaining. When fiction uses Biblical stories in some fashion to simply retell the myth (let’s say Aslan in the Narnia Chronicles is Christ returned to save humanity) then I call that proselytizing and indoctrination. But what about when the story falls somewhere in between praise and blasphemy? Thomas Covenant is a Christ figure. He’s resurrected several times in various ways. He actually has leprosy and is healed (periodically) of his condition. Christ is described as curing leprosy. His very name—Covenant: a binding religious commitment to the gospel. And he’s called “The Unbeliever” due to his refusal to believe The Land is real. A facile interpretation might pose that this unlikeable rapist asshole is a representation of “atheism,” and he doesn’t become tolerable and accept his role until he admits The Land is important—even if he never quite knows if it is real. It may all be in his head, but he becomes a better person when he cares about it and acts based upon that. Christians might call this “faith.” I would quibble that Covenant never really becomes likeable. He sacrifices and risks himself repeatedly, but I never found myself on his side. I was on the side of The Land and the supporting characters pulled in his wake.

The religious symbolism is profligate throughout. Lord Foul is our Satan. The Creator is God, Donaldson makes the Creator generally weak and ineffectual although he’s responsible for setting Covenant and Linden Avery on their paths into The Land. The Creator is a fairly clear embodiment of the aspect of Christian story that has Jesus crying, “Why have you forsaken me?” The Creator sets the ball rolling then poof—he gone. The Land is a fallen paradise, with much beauty yet corrupted by evil and plagued by toxins. There were actually times when the themes struck me as almost, vaguely environmental. The poisonous “Sunbane” that inflicts the land is like global warming. The Sunbane is fed by cruelty although they are tricked into believing they are doing it for the good of humanity. Much like we work to buy houses, clothes, electronics, and so on to give our families comfortable lives. And yet all that comfort comes at a price for our species. Humans were seduced into chopping down great swathes of the “One Forest” which subsequently allowed Lord Foul’s forces to increase their strength. There is no technology anywhere in the land, only magic and physical prowess, and so that which “pollutes” the land is driven by our Satan figure. These implications are never stated directly, but they begin to chip away at the too-obvious metaphor of Covenant “saving” humanity. The battle in his soul to avoid despair is what permits him to act and attempt to save the natural world. There is one particular scene that problematizes a simple Christian view of the story. Covenant returns to the “real world” and stumbles into a Christian revival service under a tent. Due to his leprosy, the church rejects him as diseased and literally throws him out. He finds no solace from the Earthly church, only eventually by returning to the fantasy realm and overcoming self-doubt does he find purpose. In the end, Covenant’s covenant is not religious, but it’s a commitment to action in pursuit of Good. His quest is Existential not religious. The Biblical elements seemed to me more stylistic attributes. The framework for a morality play that is about love and friendship and self-sacrifice and overcoming despair for the good of others.

I will comment briefly on the ending in a spoiler tag. Covenant finally rids the land of the Despiser by taking Lord Foul into himself—by absorbing him. This strikes me as one of Donaldson more blatant in-your-face religious metaphors. “Evil” or “Satan,” like Original Sin lives in each of us. Especially in men, though—because Covenant is our rapist. That power to be evil or to rape is something we must resist in each of us (especially men). This is a truly Existentialist type of philosophy that shows the failure of Donaldson to address “evil” as a social or cultural issue and not a personal one. It’s perhaps his Fundamentalist mindset showing through. I believe that evil—however that word is defined—is something that needs to be addressed culturally and politically. The personal follows the political. Global warming won’t be solved by each of us driving less. But by an industrial strength Green New Deal. Culture must evolve and the individual identity will follow.

In total, The Chronicles is a groundbreaking series that confronts us with a plethora of moral questions. The adventure story that goes along with it was compelling through the first six books at least, but fell apart for me in the last four. It’s not completely true that I regret reading them all. The OCD in me is pleased to know how Donaldson wanted it all to end.

[Doug0915 · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this is a review of the Audio Book, which was unabridged by Scott Brick who also was part of the ensemble who did the Ender's game and Ender's Shadow books within the Ender Universe.

It had been about 25 years since reading the first Chronicles and I had forgotten just how good these books are.

First on stories themselves followed by the audiobook.

Covenant is the ultimate Anti-hero. There are some that come close (Croaker in Glen Cooks the Black company series) but nothing quite as low. Quite simply Covenant in the first three novels is nothing short of a class A ass hole. He's damaged severely by his illness...mentally and he does mental jujitsu to make sense of what is happening to him.

But....the character is the basis for the entire series and touches on some very basic questions concerning the nature of reality and ethics which is a hell of a lot more than a lot of modern typical hack and slash fantasy. If you have not read or listened to it I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it. Get past the first 50 pages in the first book "Lord Foul's Bane", stick it out and look at the situation from the perspective of the main character. You HAVE to look at it that way because he is just as befuddled as to what the hell is going on as you are, otherwise it's easy after 30 or so pages to chuck the book across the room.....DON'T DO IT.

Now...as for the Audio book...

It's amazing how many people disregard audio books. This is probably because up until recently for the most part they were dry recitals. Fact of the matter is, an audio book is essentially an audio performance. Qualitatively it's not the same as reading. You would no more think that two different productions of Shakespere were such that if you saw one you would not want to see another than you would an audiobook vs reading (yes, audio is closer to reading somewhat but my point still stands).

I was first exposed to Scott Brick after listening to the ENTIRE catalogue of the Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow series of books by Orson Scott Card. Scott does..well a simply incredible job. I was curious as to how well he would be able to pull off the persona of Thomas Covenant and quite frankly I can't imagine Covenant sounding like anything else after the listen.

Hope that helps

And yes...I said almost NOTHING about the actual Plot except it's about some guy named "Thomas Covenant". That is as it should be. If I said anything about it it would ruin it. :)